Heater Hose Routing - 350 motor

[63beemat]

Hi All, ive tried combing through the numerous 350 motor swap posts with little luck. I am hoping someone can give me a bit of guidance regarding the routing of the heater hoses from the top of the heater valve and the small brass 90 degree fitting below. I purchased my FJ like this and would like to route it correctly for heat this fall. Pics attached for reference.

 

[pb4ugo]

I used fittings for 5/8 hoses. It looks like they didn't leave you much room between the firewall and the valve cover. Do you have any cooling problems?

 

[Wasatch Jay]

You can purchase 5/8" heater hoses with tight radius molded 90º bends on one end for LS engine swaps. They are available in different lengths.

 

[63beemat]

I used fittings for 5/8 hoses. It looks like they didn't leave you much room between the firewall and the valve cover. Do you have any cooling problems?View attachment 3964631

View attachment 3964652

View attachment 3964653

Thanks for sharing those photos. This helps. Its a bit tight back there certainly. Knock on wood, i dont have cooling issues. It stays under 200 degrees for the most part.

 

[pb4ugo]

It appears someone put pipe plugs in the heater hose ports. I'm glad to help. Anytime

 

[charliemeyer007]

I have on occasion made the custom bent annealed copper tubing filled with fine sand to prevent collapse. Plus you can get all kinds of fittings to solder on. 3/4 and 1/2 are common at Home Despot/Lowes, a section of hose and 2 hose clamps makes an easy union. A short section of hose glued to a smaller pipe say 5/8 will bush it out so 3/4 will clamp down tight. Heat gun will help with stretching if you go that route

 

[pbgbottle]

For me in the end I just removed that valve it started to dribble and i ran the hoses straight to the heater core it made for a nice clean install haven’t had issues in the past10 years roof off so don’t notice any extra in cab heat in the summer

 

[B y r o n]

Best picture I could find of how I handled mine.

This was from 2015 when I switched over to EFI. Original '73 had the manual valve and not a cable actuated valve. I originally found a cable valve at Pick A Part off a GM vehicle I believe. It had been on the vehicle since I swapped over to the SBC in the mid '80's. If finally rusted up so I found this plastic version to avoid the rust issue. The cable I used to activate it was the choke cable which was no longer need when I did the original conversion. You may also note that I continued to use the factory hose bracket that was mounted to the passenger inner fender.